Tuesday, 29 October 2013

Monster on two wheels

THE SAME "FT" CYCLIST CREATING TROUBLE ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

The Australian cyclist who was involved in a spat with a driver near VivoCity (Video: http://on.fb.me/19dgBon) has spoken up, saying the driver in question had shown him no respect.However today, he was caught on video AGAIN by another Singaporean attacking the car of another driver on the road. (Video: http://on.fb.me/1bEnYFD)The
cyclist, who wanted to be known only as Keneth, reportedly also lost
his cool with another woman driver near the Telok Blangah area in
September this year, reports The New Paper.read moreDEAR TRS, ANOTHER ANG MOH CYCLIST BRINGING THEIR ROAD HOGGING CYCLING CULTURE INTO SG

This cyclist not only hogged the road
near Phillip Street in the Raffles Place area, he also flashed his
middle finger at the driver behind him.Living in Singapore for 36 years (Which
is my ENTIRE life), I have never encountered cyclist cycling on the
road, the bangladashi workers in the late 90s were kind enough to cycle
on the road and not cause trouble to us. Only in the last decade am I
seeing increasing number of Ang Moh cyclist cycling on the road!I went to Perth for holiday before and I
understand that Australia and many western countries have Bike Lanes
and the drivers are very polite to cyclist since the roads are wider and
100000x less crowded than Singapore roads. These Ang Moh need to
integrate with us when they come to live in Singapore and not the other
way round.read moreMPS KEEP TELLING US TO LEARN TO BE RESPECTFUL AND GRACIOUS TO FTS

Parliamentary Secretary for Transport
and Health Dr Faishal's Facebook post about a road bully of Australian
origin rings a bell: "Instead of assigning blame, it is important for us
to remember that we must be gracious and respect one another on the
roads."It has to be a
paraphrase of Member of Parliament (Tampines GRC) Baey Yam Keng's
ringing endorsement of PRC scholar Sun Xu's diatribe (“There are more
dogs than people in Singapore”) directed at our senior citizens: "We
need to reflect upon ourselves, are we the way they described?" It all looks so familiar: Foreigner Talents 1, Singaporeans 0.Faishal's expressed
rapport is for a serial cyclist offender, striking terror into motorists
unfortunate to share the same roads. The housewife was driving home to
her condominium at Keppel Bay when she had a brush with the monster on
wheels: “He was violent, aggressive and used vulgarities. He even
threatened at one point that he’d make sure I got my licence revoked.”
The guy who is giving Aussies a bad name banged his fist on her car
window, and reached in to open the door. The New Paper quoted Kenneth's
version of the run in, “She tried to run me over.” He claims to have
started cycling at age 3, dating his terrorist days all the way to the
kindergarten sand pitread more

Lawless In Singapore

See no evil, hear no evil...Established in 1999, the annual Transport Gold Awards were intended to
encourage higher standards of service quality in the public transport
domain. This year the joint National Kindness Award – Transport Gold is a
collaboration with the Land Transport Authority, Traffic Police, 13
public transport companies and two transport associations.This year, 425 service stars were awarded to front line staff and
drivers from the public transport companies and associations to honour
their exemplary service for offering commuters a more pleasant
travelling experience.Too bad none of the nominees were around when the poor lady received a
face wash from the deranged spitting man at the Woodlands Bus
Interchange. The official statement from SMRT said the police was
contacted, and their intervention was awaited. Meanwhile uniformed staff
stood by, a safe distance away, while the stoic victim of the physical
abuse put up with the indignitiesread more

Cycling in Singapore is evolving, so expect joy and expect growing pains!I looked back to a blog post from ten years ago and it is a fascinating read - "Thoughts about cycling in Singapore".The important issue though is, how much has changed since? Well in the past year, so many things have happened in the
cycling scene in Singapore and the number of announcements, news items
and discussions have far outpaced my ability to keep this ten-year old blog updated!Stakeholders have been meeting with URA and LTA, sounding out
suggestions, consulting on routes and even going on bicycle rides! In a
very short time, advocates for cycling as an integral part of city life
have become a united group, whether in government or from the groundread more

Monster on two wheels

The big "W" behind is for WankerJust last week, my female colleague was flabbergasted when a
Caucasian jogger ran straight into the side of her stationary SUV, and
then hurled invectives at her for being in his way. Unlike Kenneth’s
milder victim, she gave him a tongue lashing and threatened to call the
cops if he persisted with the nonsense. The best way to treat such
abominations is to face them down, not take the contemplative route
advocated by Faisal and Baey.Although a police report has been made, it remains to be seen if the
road bully will get away with a slap on the wrist. For all we know, the
parliamentarians may use the incident to initiate a “Be Kind To Foreign
Talents” campaign, tapping the $10 million fund made available to the
National Integration Council for the welcoming party for foreigners.Channel NewsAsia (CNA) quoted the police as saying “appropriate actions
will be taken against the parties involved if they are found to have
flouted any rules”, implying that the motorist could be taken to task
for not being sympathetic to road users who cannot afford a $100K COE.read morePolice investigates FT road rage cyclist

Australian cyclist KennethThe police have confirmed that they are investigating a case of road
rage involving an expat cyclist along Keppel Bay Drive last month, as
well as a case of the same cyclist stopping in the middle of the road to
challenge a driver this month. In the latter case, the driver’s in-car
video captured the whole incident along Keppel Road (video: ‘FT cyclist breaks traffic rules, challenges driver‘)The police’s confirmation came after Parliamentary Secretary for
Transport and Health, Dr Faishal, posted a comment about the 2 incidents
on his Facebook page yesterday (25 Oct):

“Many have asked for my opinion on the recent incidents
involving a cyclist and other motorists. I understand that the Police
are already investigating both incidents.Instead of assigning blame, it is important for us to remember that
we must be gracious and respect one another on the roads. Cyclists,
motorists and pedestrians alike must abide by traffic rules and play
their part in looking out for one another. When we demonstrate courtesy
and empathy, our roads will be safer for everyone. I believe that we can
all contribute to making everyone’s journeys safer and more pleasant.”

With regard to the first incident, the police said that they received
a call at about 7.44am on 16 September 2013 for assistance along Keppel
Bay Drive. When they arrived, it was established that an alleged case
of road rage had occurred.read more

Some way to go for cycling path network

A day may come when cyclists will be able to use Singapore's growing network of cycling paths to commute from home to their school or workplace.

For now, though, it is not exactly a smooth ride for those who try.

This was what The Sunday Times found when three reporters rode their bicycles some 180km over three days, to check if the cycling path and park connector networks work for the daily commute.

All The New Bicycles For SingaporeHave I gone bonkers? No, surely. As a proponent of mode-share commuting, I have decided a bicycle thread here would be a good platform to cultivate interests in alternative form of commuting, especially in times like these when a COE cost an arm and a leg. Partly, also due to a casual comment from perceivedtobe whom mooted the thought of a bike thread elsewhere in the forum.Unlike cars, my knowledge on bicycles are as thin as an ice sheet in the days leading to up to the summer. So, if you have - I presume - leanings about bicycles that are as thick as foliage of the Amazon rainforest, please share with us.Singaporeans will spend good money to get a top-end bicycle, which some models costing up to $8,000. Modern bikes are a hi-tech brood, boasting expensive carbon fibre frame, sophisticated suspension and on trail models, 29-inch wheels. These are not the austerity machines one often associates with bicycling. Maybe it's time we drop our predisposition about the humble human-powered two wheelers.read more